The Artistic Jewel in Palazzo Medici Riccardi Few Bother to Visit

When it was built in the 15th century, Palazzo Medici surpassed all other Florentine palaces in size and grandeur. Commissioned in 1444 by Cosimo il Vecchio, the patriarch of the Medici family, to his friend Michelozzo, an architect and a sculptor, it is inspired by classical Roman and Brunelleschian principles, making the building exquisitely Florentine.

While Cosimo only moved there in the last years of his life because he found it too big, his grandson Lorenzo il Magnifico established a princely court where poets, philosophers and artists, including Pico della Mirandola, Poliziano and Botticelli, often gathered.

In 1540, Cosimo I moved to Palazzo Vecchio, and after more than a century, it was sold to the Riccardi family, hence the name it bears today.

Not many visitors may be aware of the artistic jewel that is housed on the first floor of the palace, the Magi Chapel, whose walls are decorated with frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli, painted in 1459. Using the theme of the Ride of the Magi, Gozzoli made a brilliant and picturesque portrayal of Florentine life. The work of art was intended as a homage to the Medici court and depicted the 1439 council that contributed to the dynasty’s, and the city’s, prestige.

Amid a landscape populated with knights, animals, hunting scenes, slight trees, strange rocks, a hilltop castle with towers, stands the procession with many illustrious Florentines, members of the Medici family, including Cosimo il Vecchio and Lorenzo il Magnifico, and their friends, as well as visitors from the East, who can be recognized thanks to their lavish clothes and the beards – in Florence, hairless faces were the trend at the time.

The chapel is accessed by entering the elegant courtyard, which features the Medici emblem on the cornice between the arcades of the portico and the first floor.